Susan Calkins - Sculptor

After receiving a business degree from Trinity University in 1982, I began to expand an interest in sculpture that went back to my childhood.  More and more, I came to appreciate the love I had for its ability to transform a piece of stone from something raw to something refined and beautiful.  In addition, I began to experiment in sculpting other types of materials, including metal and wood.   During the 1990s, while raising three wonderful children in San Antonio, I commuted to Texas State University in San Marcos to earn a “BFA in Visual Arts” (with an emphasis in sculpture). 

Feeling confident to step into the worlds of both Business and Art, I felt a calling to combine my passions for Visual Art and Art Education.  In hopes of helping others tap into their own individual creativity, I started a non-profit “community art center” in San Antonio and from 2005 to 2017 I was its Executive Director.  After twelve creative years with that organization, I felt the need to focus on my own art and, in late 2017, I moved to the outskirts of San Antonio where I’ve begun a new and thrilling chapter in my life as an artist.  I am now exercising my imagination full time and creating new works using stone, paint and metal among the beautiful and quiet hills of Grey Forest, Texas.

Nature has always inspired me…it calms me, centers me, intrigues me and amazes me……..all of its incredibly subtle and vibrant colors, the shades and hues that never end; the lines that crag through solid stone or, drift among the leaves, as well as the textures of rough skins, slick ice, grainy sands and forms that never repeat themselves or go endlessly to the horizon.

Being around other artists also inspires me.  When I see how someone else approaches the nuances of creativity it always sparks within me an enlightened insight.  While it may not be something that I will overtly incorporate into my own work, it reminds me of the endless possibilities available to my imagination.

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